Shared Kitchen

A couple weeks ago I moved into a shared kitchen, no I didn't move everything I have so much baking stuff I could fill my own store, I do my fondant work and baking in the shared kitchen. I started out being there 6 days a week from 10am-6pm but I ran into a couple of issues that we are trying to work out. I didn't see the point of being there all day when no one comes in so I do my baking at night there and fondant work while cakes are baking.

I wish I was able to still do it from home I liked it much better when I could put a cake in the oven and go on with cleaning, working on fondant etc plus my house has central air so fondant or butter cream melting really wasn't an issue, where in the shared kitchen it is.

The guy who I share the kitchen with is pretty awesome, he is very funny and easy going which is great. He owns Philly Cheese Jakes here in town and his food is pretty good from the items I have tried so far.

With this big step of moving into a shared kitchen it is making me realize how badly I would love to be in my own kitchen. As for the business its not ready for that just yet but maybe in a year it will be.

With the cake business I am pretty lucky I have some pretty great clients!

In the shared kitchen Jake's youngest daughter is there a lot she seems to really enjoy being there and is a very nice girl, she knows her way around the kitchen that's fore sure. She always has lots of questions of fondant and such and really likes to try the cupcakes when them! So far she has tried a few flavours she was unsure about and turned out to really like them.

I am lucky to have found such amazing people to work around just miss doing it from home, people will say oh I know lots of people who make cakes and stuff from their homes well it depends where you live and your by-laws, Sarnia has strict health codes that make it very hard to do it from home, I know one other local baker who rents a kitchen to do her baking and has had an old car port turned into an add a room to be able to decorate her cakes at home. It is very rare in Sarnia-Lambton for a home to be approved to use their kitchen as a home bakery etc.

My first day in the kitchen I was a ball of nerves, I didn't know much about Jake and wasn't sure if our personalities would mix, one of my best friends came in early brought me flowers and bought a couple cupcakes. She made my day and I relaxed, Jake and I get along great, from what I can tell.

I changed my hours to only being there at night to bake and do fondant and such and I am only "open" on days I have deliveries or pick ups. I started out offering cupcake of the day, everyday a different cupcake never the same twice in a month, but now I am going to offer them when I am "open" So right now I will mainly be there on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays depending of course as more and more people are ordering cakes for during the week.

When I told Jake was wouldn't be in until Saturday his response was awesome! He said well now what am I going to do, he mainly works alone and he comes back and chats with me and such.

I just bought a bakers rack in order to display my baked goods when I there for people to see his daughter is going to paint it the colours to match the store for me, she is quite the artist so I am sure its going to look amazing.

I am in the process of looking for a cold display that will fit in a certain spot but right now its not an option they run $2,000.00 plus for a used one so I must wait. As of right now anything that has to be kept cold I keep in a stand up freezer that was given to me!